This is the Impact of Good Hygiene

Handwashing with soap could reduce diarrheal deaths by 50%¹

While water and sanitation infrastructure are important, people must also understand the importance of using it. That’s why education about safe hygiene practices is included in all our interventions.

Good Hygiene Changes Everything

Each year, 3.5 million deaths occur from waterborne diseases.²

When communities have good hygiene practices alongside their new water and sanitation services, those deaths can be prevented.

This is how we do it

Water For People wants to improve hygiene and in turn improve health around the world. In communities, we educate about hygiene and handwashing and in some cases utilize social art like street plays and murals to reinforce hygiene habits. In schools, we set up handwashing stations and help create hygiene committees that teach students about proper hygiene practices.

Girls often drop out of school when they get their periods, so we make sure schools have the menstrual hygiene resources necessary to ensure girls can continue their education. These resources include things like education, private changing rooms, pads, and incinerators to dispose of used hygiene products. The result is girls are empowered to stay in school.

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people educated about hygiene in 2019

This is How Hygiene Changes Lives

Ten girls are keeping hundreds of girls in school in India. These girls are part of an important group – the Menstrual Hygiene Committee. Their aim is for the whole school to understand menstruation and menstrual hygiene management. They’re bringing an eye to what female students need at their school: private washrooms, sanitary pads, and an incinerator to dispose of pads. And it’s making girls more comfortable with their periods and keeping them in school.

By By Eleanor Allen - Patrick Moriarty - IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre Water for People, It took a global pandemic to raise the world's awareness of the importance of handwashing and access to clean water - basic services that over 2 billion people in the world still lack .

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